“Imaging,” as the term is used herein, refers to one or more of the processes involved in the display and/or printing of graphics and/or text. The term “imaging device,” as used herein, refers to any electronic device that provides functionality related to imaging. Some examples of imaging devices include printers, copiers, scanners, facsimile devices, document servers, image servers, electronic whiteboards, digital cameras, digital projection systems, medical imaging devices, and so forth.
For various reasons, an imaging device may be logically connected to (i.e., placed in electronic communication with) one or more computer systems, which may be referred to as host computer systems (or simply as hosts). For example, a printer may be connected to a network of computer systems. This allows the users of the various computer systems on the network to use the printer.
From time to time, an imaging device may receive one or more jobs from a host. The term “imaging job” may refer to an imaging-related task that is performed by an imaging device. For example, a print job may be a single document or a set of documents that is submitted to a printer for printing.
To facilitate communication between a host and an imaging device, the host may include a driver for the imaging device. The driver for a particular imaging device may allow applications on the host to be able to communicate with the imaging device without knowing specific details about the imaging device's hardware and internal language.
Some products may allow the direct imaging of documents. In this context, the term “direct imaging” refers to the imaging of a document, where the imaging job is initiated by a device that does not include the application that created the document and/or the imaging device driver. A direct imaging job may be initiated from a host computing device. Alternatively, a user may initiate a direct imaging job at the imaging device itself (e.g., via a communication interface, such as a USB port). This type of imaging job may be referred to as a “walk-up” job. In either case, the document data may be re-routed to a translation service (which does have the application and conversion driver) that may then convert the document into a format that the imaging device expects to receive.
Under some circumstances it may be desirable to perform one or more job auditing functions with respect to imaging jobs that are performed on an imaging device. Such job auditing functions may involve extracting from an imaging job a small quantity of text and/or image data that would enable a reviewing party to understand the content of the document that is being imaged. The extracted data may be stored in a job auditing record for review.
As mentioned, the present disclosure relates to imaging devices and document imaging. More specifically, the present disclosure relates to job auditing systems and methods for direct imaging of documents.